Passenger number estimates for a reopened Doncaster Sheffield Airport have been more than halved in revised technical plans submitted to aviation industry bosses, The Yorkshire Post can reveal.

But officials behind City of Doncaster Council’s plans to reopen the airport today insisted the ambitions for the project “haven’t changed” despite an initial projection of 2.5m passengers a year after a decade in operation being superseded by revised estimates of 1.1m passengers a year by 2037.

The latter number is substantially below the 1.9m level previously deemed “affordable” for the reopening project but a project spokesperson said officials remain “very confident” in the business case for the airport.

Details have been made public amongst a series of documents relating to an application to the Civil Aviation Authority to reinstate airspace at the airport, which City of Doncaster Council is seeking to reopen after it was closed under private ownership in November 2022.

Doncaster Council is seeking to reopen Doncaster Sheffield Airport. Picture: James Hardisty.

placeholder image — Doncaster Council is seeking to reopen Doncaster Sheffield Airport. Picture: James Hardisty.

The council initially projected reaching 2.5m passengers a year after a decade in operation as it sought to reinstate the airspace arrangements which had been in place prior to DSA’s closure. DSA’s previous record year had been 1.4m passengers in 2019.

An August 2025 submission to the CAA said: “Longer-term growth projections anticipate passenger throughput reaching approximately 2.5 million passengers per annum by ten years after the restart of operations. These figures are consistent with the airport’s previous performance prior to closure and are based on an expected mix of lower-cost, charter, and full-service carriers, as well as the re-establishment of freight operations and the accommodation of emerging aviation markets.”

But it has now “discontinued” the original airspace option and put forward two alternatives to the CAA this month.

Under an ‘initial options appraisal’, both alternatives state: “In year 10 we estimate there will be 8,189 passenger flights carrying 1,169,538 passengers and 4,140 cargo flights.”

The reopening plan is reliant on £160m of funding being released by the office of South Yorkshire mayor Oliver Coppard. In September, Mr Coppard’s office said the business case for reopening was only affordable under ‘higher traffic scenarios’ which included estimates of 1.9m passengers by 2037.

Mr Coppard’s office said at the time that the base case of 1.5m passengers by 2037 was ‘unaffordable within the funding envelope’.

The new forecasts and the wider airspace change process do not legally limit air transport movements, which are set through planning consents - meaning DSA could potentially cater for higher levels of demand. DSA has planning consent for almost 57,000 air transport movements a year, with the current forecasts based on fewer than 12,400.

A project spokesperson said: “We are very confident in the business case for this airport and achieving previously announced levels of freight and passenger movements. Just this week we have held further positive meetings on both fronts, and there is enormous appetite in seeing this project succeed from across the industry.

“The Airspace Change Process is a technical document, which includes detailed data and analysis from a range of sources. The ambition of and potential of this project haven’t changed.”